he was an internet prodigy and a fearless at advocate for cyber freedom today the family and friends of reddit code creator aaron schwartz lead him to rest art he was there and we'll bring you a report in just a minute. another storm is brewing over seventy days after hurricane sandy wreaked havoc on the eastern seaboard house republicans are getting ready for round two of sandy aid talks what the bill entails and why it's taking so long to pass coming up . what can only be described as an editorial flub of the great lady reveals her true colors when it comes to the decades old dispute over the west bank what a simple headline says about the hidden bias in the new york times office ahead.

it's tuesday january fifteenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r.t. . today family and friends laid to rest are young man that helped make the internet what it is today aaron swartz is remembered for his dedication to a free and open internet but he was haunted by a federal case in which prosecutors called for extremely stiff sentences in his death the new debate has emerged about the government and prosecutorial overreach our t.v. producer many were awful i was intercom go today with a look at the ceremony. relatives friends activists and several alternative voices arrive together on a somber note at central avenue synagogue in chicago to pay their respects to an

internet pioneer aaron swartz who at the age of twenty six took his own life swartz was co-founder of the online publication reddit and demand progress and was an influential figure in his own right a passionate activist and a web freedom fighter he rallied for an open and accessible internet a point his supporters have vowed that they'll continue to champion one of the most important to also creating more democratization is making things more transparent and so if we can make information more transparent it's obviously a success for everyone out there erin was facing allegations and indictment on thirteen counts including wire fraud and computer fraud psychologist and supporter dr jean backman who came to highland park to pay respect to aaron's family suggest that the behavior of federal prosecutors was nothing short of bullying if you look at the definition of terrorism it is to inspire terror and this man a young man and his family were literally terrorized by the prosecutors and the

judicial discretion that let this case go forward and not stop despite the cold weather activists and supporters arrived by the dozens agreeing that aaron did pose a threat not to justice certainly not to national security but rather a threat to the status quo the idea that he was facing decades in jail is is just disgusting absolutely appalling and and now we've lost a tremendously valuable and talented human being it's just it's so tragic rumors circulated of protests outside of the funeral the police on scene met only heavy hearted supporters here to bit a final goodbye and to remember erin for his work and activism. you know you put in on the steve jobs level you put him on the mark zuckerberg level you put him on a john lennon level you know and he was a great kid with a good heart china to do something good for the world and chicago illinois with up

with our team. from our t. web producer andrew blake joins us now live from chicago hi andrea so how would you describe the mood over there how are you. obviously quite somber but if there's one big takeaway from from today's today's funeral was that aaron was not a somber person in fact he was a very very caring and one thing that we kept hearing time and time again during the funeral was that he was completely selfless he was someone who always looked out for others and that's why he was such an advocate for a free and open internet because he wanted to share information with others and you know today you know right here at the synagogue we saw hundreds of people pack it to recall someone and you know it was it was quite emotional there were there were tears at times but there was also a tremendous amount of laughter as people recall just loving caring individual who

whose seriously spend half of his life more than they're working to make sure that other people had access to information into the internet who really revolutionized the community now and how do you think andrew that his death will and impact the issues that swartz stood for and like internet freedom. right now we can say that this is at least getting people talking and it's under terrible circumstances it really shouldn't take the death of a twenty six year old man to get people to analyze what is wrong with computer laws in this country the electronic communications privacy act is very very flawed if you ask many advocates of privacy and if you look at the computer fraud and abuse act the very legislation that aaron himself was accused of violating you can ask people from any sort of sphere you know what do you think of it and you know i'm sure there's going to be parts of it they're there for a reason but when when you have the massachusetts attorney general trying to

prosecute someone like erin who was only trying to share information and to share knowledge it's incredibly unfortunate and that was something that was really driven home today at the funeral everyone who came up to offer eulogies. said something something has to change the united states government can no longer be making martyrs out of hackers because right now you know a friend of mine just recently said that at this point in time it seems like as far as the hacking community goes murders are the chief export of the united states government because there is no there is no it celebrating them in the eye of washington there's still this this misconception character assassination that people who who go on computers and do things that are understandable to others are doing it for harm and for no good and you like we saw here today hundreds of hundreds of people gathered to celebrate erin is someone who always put every single person out above above himself he was positive looking for ways to better

the community to better society and to better the world and hopefully that change is going to continue by finally revamping some legislation that exists right now that you know more than enough people will tell you are rather invalid and you know aaron father himself actually before the funeral finished this just me. aaron's father said you know aaron did not commit suicide but was killed by the government and he was very passionate about you know. that his son took his own life but but seeing that it. wasn't really aaron's depression in his opinion that did him in but it was more or less the persecution of prosecution of a government that just miss understands legislation and is only looking to make an example out of people all right. of course suicide suicide cases can be very complex and we heard it the way that aaron's family is reacting to this blaming the government for for what instigated him to take his own life alternately

aside from his family how are people over there viewing the prosecution's role in this. i'm sorry can you can you repeat the last question for me how are people there viewing the prosecution's role in the death aaron swartz. ok i'm sorry thank you yeah it's not just his family who is saying that that that the department of justice in the massachusetts attorney general's office had a role in this kim brenner's lead who actually invented the world wide web as we know it he was here today and was championing for the community there and so much was a part of in love to to to make changes so that this doesn't happen any longer erin partner tara in a eulogy just after ten o'clock this morning and she was saying that in aaron's final days he seemed. almost like he couldn't fight anymore she said he just seemed

tired and asked how long is this going to go on for it wasn't just his family but it was people close to him his peers and his colleagues in the circle of information activist and online communities who you really feel at least for from the testimonies that i've heard from people that you know this wasn't just a list of selfish suicide but this was someone who simply couldn't take the weight of the federal government hurting them and you know i can't dear dear understand what it would be like to be in error and she was facing thirty five years in a federal penitentiary only for trying to help people but it's definitely something that it's not just this family recognizes and hopefully we will see change because of this but unfortunately it's under such terrible circumstances all right and i really appreciate you staying on top of this story over there in chicago that was our producer andrew blake. later today the house of representatives is slated

to vote on a piece of legislation aimed at providing relief to victims of hurricane sandy however it seems the fifty billion dollars bill won't pass without a fight lawmakers have been embroiled in a bitter debate over several pet projects that have made their way into the emergency plan including billions of dollars of earmarks unrelated to helping the actual victims of the hurricane so why is it so hard to pass legislation that would help those desperately in need to help break this all down michael brooks a producer of the majority report joins us now welcome there michael so it seems you know even when it comes to emergency relief politics still determines the success of the bill. yeah well it's first of all it's great to be with you i think that that's true and i think you're seeing another opportunity here for republican grandstanding about the budget and it's really unfortunate you know this is

a these funds need to be appropriated here in new york city there are definitely sections of new york new jersey that are not recovered at all people are still really suffering and a lot of these funds are actually really essential and really need to be immediately to get people back on their feet and there's also a disturbing pattern of using. bills like this that are really essential or at another skill actually reason with that ceiling which is also pretty essential to kind of school or political points about things congressional people may may or may not like about the budget so it's pretty disheartening to watch and it's definitely grounds for pretty major concern now michael i want to break down some of the specifics of this bill that has gotten quite complicated fifty billion dollars for hurricane relief aid this has been broken down seventeen

billion dollars as bare bones package thirty three point seven billion dollar amendment that allows fema to make disaster aid grants based on estimated damage costs and it also allows fema to fun limited repairs on homes and also streamline the environmental review process so how will the money in this bill be dulled out will it go directly to people who have lost their homes and businesses. well you know unfortunately there is going to be a lot of bureaucracy in terms of how this money is delivered i think in the first bill that seems to be less controversial the first seventeen billion those are very immediate things like getting people home home heating you know don't forget this is very cold part of the country here you're talking about senior citizens that don't have he things like that so won't go directly into people's prada pockets but i think it will be pretty easily sort of streamlined in terms of availability for

people to get funds for things like that in the longer term in terms of collecting insurance on houses or businesses or things like that that tends to be a more arduous and complicated process. and you know there's a lot of brock recy and there's a lot of different things that people have to deal with and you know you still see . people from previous disasters still waiting on claims and disputing how much money they've received to compensate for their losses in those areas it gets a lot more problematic meanwhile a lot of controversy in this bill and a big debate going on about the billions of dollars of pet projects that are sneaking its way into this bill can you talk about this practice and how it's affecting the ability for lawmakers to reach a consensus. well i think it's important to make a couple of distinctions with that i mean this is always happens and it is

a problem i mean there was odd supplementals on iraq and afghanistan war funding you know funding for people to build museums or do different things in their district there's nothing new about this. on the other hand i think that there are much bigger more structural issues in terms of how we spend our money in terms of the types of systemic corporate subsidies we give out something like the oil industry as an example how we deal with revenues and taxes that are actually a lot more fundamental than these projects even though they can and often are a problem but in this bill what you see is you see a republican party which is more and more out of the northeast using a bill that will not really affect their constituents because they're not at the receiving end of this emergency to kind of extract political wins so in this case it's there is some legitimate issues being raised but it's has to be really

cautious in terms of how it's being applied and whether it's being applied and if you look into some of the republican members who are blocking this money now they they've certainly been you know. active in your markers themselves they've certainly got out and gotten this type of funding for their districts themselves even non-emergency situations. and even in non-emergency situations so you know i would kind of be weary about people having a sort of holier than thou moment about this funding particularly now given the severity of the situation is raising these questions that you know people are using this bell for political gain when it's an emergency bell and there's people that are in desperate need of this funding. that's exactly right and i do want to say a lot of times a lot of amendments where with such a controversial bill like this being debated on the floor it's not excess expected

for a vote until later this evening so could it change significantly by the final vote i doubt it i think it will pass mostly in its current form again actually because of some of the things that we're already talking about you know favors are going to be owed favors are going to be pursued i also think the other variable to keep in mind is that you know chris christie the governor of new jersey is definitely the most popular republican nationally and i think if you comes out again and gives more statements like he did a couple weeks ago really taking the republican leadership to task and sort of how they're dealing with this bill and they don't want to deal with that type of thing again so i think that this will probably grow through but it's already been for too long that it's already been held the way longer than it should have been to begin with and i think you know again if you were i am in the city where i live and work it's no problem but if you go to staten island rockaways

a lot of people are still living in really even dangerous and very bad conditions and they need that money now right michael appreciate you coming on our next reporter actually takes a look at this very concerned that was michael brooks he is a producer for the majority report thank you. so with all the talk of relief efforts of residents affected by the hurricane are wondering if or when help will arrive two and half months since hurricane sandy ravaged the eastern seaboard many are still struggling to pick up the pieces or to correspond anastasio turpin to has traveled to some of the areas hardest hit by the superstorm and she reports how some are finding it harder to keep up the hope with each passing day. just beach area. the rockaways in queens one of the places hit hardest by hurricane

sandy two and a half months ago still in shambles today miles and miles of devastated businesses residential buildings and houses like this one a place some family probably used to call home now almost literally hanging by a thread with almost zero chance of ever being rebuilt a few locals on the collapsed boardwalk most of them in dire need of help this man who chose to remain anonymous due to government related work survived hurricane katrina his hopes of recovery post sandy are meager it never going to move you still go parts of alabama louisiana mississippi where it got hit with katrina well as other areas they've been touched yet after sandy hit and lead october he spent over a month with no electricity heat or hot water and thirty degree weather bamer three times i feel that now after creation of three times i got sore fissions had the

crew are. the folks here that put him in office the least on the las money looks better in your pocket that is spending it on something that may get washed away again i had to replace my. hot water heater retired local roberta hoffman currently rebuilding her walls floors and stairs says the destruction after the hurricane has been immense we don't have a movie theater we don't have the hospital it's the banks and finally opening now it's two and a half months it looks like as after a war or after no in afghanistan or something. and most of the help in hurricane affected areas has come from volunteers i didn't see too much of the red cross to be truth it was volunteers who have often been affected by sandy themselves like a man you said from staten island actually it was like a foot on top of it that's how much it was the water his house deemed unsafe after the hurricane is about to be demolished the only think we need is the plants the

fund is not there to get help you know we were getting like to a sense we were going to get the ninety percent that's a mystery we need a check from god that's what we've for a month and a half a man lived in this tent where he also set up a help center for the community somewhere a lot of people coming there are still a lot six seven hundred people. a day six seven hundred yes yes. all of these people victims of sandy everybody around here from go up to them they'll tell you the same thing they said you know they handed me a sandwich and a blanket and i was in water up to my chest and they said hey see you later oh by the way i want to exit the truck occupy sandy a child of the occupy wall street movement has been a big part of the recovery effort to even praised by the n.y.p.d. what we have is a lot of people coming in here and not knowing where to turn and some of them are in tears and you know it's very hard to tell them that help is coming and you hear all this talk about that the nine billion if you want to think that would be

a big help it. actually two communities while politicians seem to have perfected the skill of arguing over how much cash to spend on relief aid getting money and helped ordinary people who needed right now is clearly a skill that is yet to be learned and. new york. we turn now to a new york times article raising eyebrows because of its title take a look here is a screenshot of one of the article originally appeared on its website on january eleventh it reads palestinian set up camps in israel occupied israeli occupied west bank but later that evening that title change the new one reads palestinians set up tents where israel plans homes this was all captured by a website called news diffs dot org we reached out to new york times asking why the change of title but we haven't gotten a response yet the story is about how two hundred palestinians are setting up tents

in an israeli occupied west bank territory called on the group has announced they plan on establishing a village there called. for more i'm joined now by ayman al sayad co-founder of the resistance is resistance either human. so is this simply a mistake made by the new york times for reasons of space or do you think it's something more. i don't believe it's based on space and editing i believe it's the it's a clear bias against the palestinians the new york times has a history of the in value so is the palestinians and being in support of israel i mean this area that the israel has called it one is on palestinian private property in the west bank israel is planning on building illegal settlements on the sill and internationally the whole world recognizes the west bank as occupied territory occupied by israel the new york times went ahead and change the headline

six hours after originally putting it up and it showed as a clear bias towards the palestinians and in favor of israel. i do want to be fair and mention that the term israeli occupied the term that was used in that title and then removed that is used and the actual body of the article so. does that not negate these accusations of a biased or what do you think i don't think in the gates bias because the headline is what attracts people to read the article it's that stands out it's what it's the headline it's a headline or so and it's not just this issue the new york times has a troubling history of being bias for example their former chief youthen broner his son served in the israeli defense forces and there's really army which was actively occupying palestinian lands bombing the gaza strip shooting at human rights activists in the west bank the bureau chief is son was was an idea while he was a bro chief in jerusalem that's a major conflict of interest that the new. i mean at least temporarily until the

sun is out of the army they refused to do that how can you be objective when your son is an army that's occupying palestinian land and territory and killing palestinians on a daily basis how can he be to burrow chief in jerusalem with this conflict of interest right that case that you referred to. new york times got gotten a lot of heat because of that do you think it's taking taken adequate steps since then to to remedy that not not at all as we saw with this recent change in the headline and they refused to move. position at least temporarily and the other thing i'd like to point out is that the new york times office in jerusalem is actually built on a palestinian home of palestinians who were kicked out of their homes in one thousand nine hundred in jerusalem that house at the new york times purchased in one thousand nine hundred four in west jerusalem belong to the economy family there a palestinian family that lived in jerusalem before you were expelled by israeli terrorist militias in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight so they purchased

a house that's built on top of palestinian homes and they've acknowledged this is not a hidden information they've acknowledged that they purchased it they tried to it's ambiguous what their response has been they tried to say we purchased the house from whoever sold it to us but they acknowledge that it was palestinian and that the people the palestinians who owned it should have the right to determine who owns that house who built on top of the original house and they're still occupying this house so this is a lot of conflict of interest of the new york times when it comes to palestine there occupying a palestinian home their former bro chief's son was served in israeli forces while he was abroad chief and now and now with this headline and as well if you read the new york times on a daily basis they just take the israeli statements as fact when israel bombs the area and says oh we killed ten terrorists the new york times is printed as a fact it doesn't say allegedly or it doesn't say israel calls them terrorists it just says israel and militants killed ten militants without. having to reporters on

the ground in. to actually see if it's factual or not without having reporters in the west bank the majority of the reporters for the new york times are stationed in tel aviv and israeli areas in jerusalem so they're not objective at all when it comes to rick reporting the occupation of palestine so clearly you see the new york times as biased when it comes to the israeli palestinian conflict do you think that they're unique in that. no not they're not new neat and dumb along with other newspapers based in new york and newspapers in the united states have a major bias when it comes to our foreign policy in palestine as well as in other countries whether it's iraq syria afghanistan pakistan there's a major bias where our newspapers are not being object do we just siding with whatever the government says journalism is supposed to be objective you cover a story you hear both sides and you report the facts you don't report the one side as facts and ignore the other side and this is

a major problem going on in this misinforming our fellow citizens in this country i would like to make it related to the topic you were talking about before with hurricane sandy we give israel billions of dollars yearly and we're not able to pass a bill to give money to our fellow citizens in new york or new jersey who were affected by hurricane sandy who have lost their home and still have no power why is it that we can't provide help to our own people but we giving billions to israel and this is this is a major problem and i believe the media plays a part in this misinformation misinforming americans about the foreign policy in our support of israel and they can look like it's necessary for security that we have to support occupation of palestine necessary and clear we can definitely keep this conversation going but we are unfortunately are to at a time really appreciate you coming on the show. a co-founder of existence is resistance think that is going to do it for this hour but for more of the stories we covered you can check out our you tube channel that is youtube dot com slash our

team america our website our t. dot com slash usa and you can follow me on twitter at liz wahl we'll be back here in a half hour. well . science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. deadly rivals some decades. if good fifteen thousand people killing each other in any other country there would be diplomats there would be mediators. self-imposed out costs from society i will attack myself and michael attack my

brother understand my contact immediately. going to be basically attacked the columns of my anger and my frustration. that. well into the top. two of the most violent gangs in us history. is just all model kill or be killed with colors matching the national flag. but this country uses violence when it reaches and then it legitimizes the violence they all made in america on the ati.